Candidates Page

Azra (Co-President Candidate)

Hello HSSA members, I am Azra and I am running to be your next Co-President. I am the current VP Academic of HSSA and I am ever-passionate about this group and about bringing the health science faculties together. What do I want to bring as co-president?

1. I want to adjust the constitution and election process in the future to create an overlap between the Co-Presidents. This will allow for more seamless transitions between executives. I want to improve the structure of the transitioning process and have more resources available to be carried over.

2. I want to work more closely with other student group executives and know them more personally so that the all the members feel more connected to HSSA. I think that this will improve communication and relationships between HSSA and the groups it represents, and thereby increasing attendance to HSSA events.

I am qualified for this position because I have experience on HSSA, and I care about pushing HSSA to reach it’s full potential. I plan on utilizing the constitution to clarify roles of other executives and to increase awareness of these roles to other executives so that we can better delegate tasks. I believe that I can use my knowledge of events we have run in the past to improve them for next year.

Teresa (Co-President Candidate)

I am a first year medical student running to serve as your HSSA Co-President for another year. My platform consists of three main points:

1. Experience

Via a by-election, I had the honour of being chosen to act as the Co-President for the 2014-2015 term. Over the course of this past year, I have not only become very familiar with the ins and outs of the HSSA as an organization, but I have also established strong contacts with the National HSSA (our mother organization) as well as with HSERC, the faculty group that supports the HSSA. I have learned how to run an organization that encompasses nine student organizations, how to coordinate a team of over 20 members, and how to keep in contact with a national organization on a virtual basis. In total, I have committed over 100 hours to HSSA-related activities in the past year, in the form of meetings, event planning and hosting, administrative duties and volunteering.

2. Dedication

I am highly passionate about interprofessionalism and multidisciplinary teamwork. I took the opportunity to not only help organize HSSA events this year, but also to participate in them. Most notably, I competed with a group of other healthcare students in the local Health Care Team Challenge in January and was fortunate enough to win. This granted us the opportunity to travel to Kingston in March to participate in the national Health Care Team Challenge, as well as to attend the Interprofessional Conference hosted by Queen’s University. Through these experiences, I have broadened my understanding of what it means to work as a modern healthcare professional, while also building strong connections with students from other faculties. Being involved with the HSSA this past year has been the most valuable and enjoyable part of my extracurricular education here at the University of Alberta, and I am dedicated to creating opportunities for other students to enjoy the same experiences that I did.

3. Innovation

The HSSA currently holds multiple social and academic events throughout the year. I would like to build on and refine what we already offer based on my past experience. Firstly, I would like to introduce an interprofessional wellness project, whereby students can log off various wellness activities that they complete (such as cooking a healthy meal, going for a jog, spending an hour practicing an instrument, or trying a new activity) via Facebook or Twitter to win points towards prizes. This event would promote student wellness while bringing together students from different faculties and raising awareness about healthy living on a daily basis. Secondly, I would like to reorder our current events to maximize student involvement. For instance, this year’s Alberta Interprofessionalism Conference (AIC) conflicts with a pharmacy conference in Banff and comes one week after the busy (and tiring) medical MMI weekend (interview weekend for incoming medical students). By working collaboratively with the interdisciplinary representatives from each student organization early on in the year, I plan on minimizing such time conflicts so that it is easier for students from all faculties to attend HSSA events.

Feel free to send me an email at li4@ualberta.ca with any questions or comments, or to add me on Facebook and chat there. Thank you for your time!

Anson (VP Administration Candidate)

My name is Anson and I am running to be HSSA’s VP Administration. Before entering the health sciences as a medical student, I was always fascinated but the extent of teamwork in the hospitals from my own experiences and my friends who pursued nursing, the allied health professions, pharmacy, and medicine. Healthcare does not work unless there is a team that includes the patient. I want to be the VP Administration next year because I want to help facilitate the process of letting health sciences students work together at an earlier stage in their careers. This year, I was the VP Social for HSSA, trying to bring the health sciences students together so that they can network and let loose from the rigours of studying. While in my role, I realized how much I enjoyed organizing and coordinating events. Although I enjoy the role of being the centre of social events, I have learned that I have an aptitude for administration. I am a president of two other student groups on campus and also active as a VP in another. Through these experiences outside HSSA, I have had to demonstrate an effective system of administration: meeting taking, meeting planning, scheduling around schedules, and administering applications and surveys. In our medical school’s discussion groups, I act as the representative between our group and our preceptor, arranging times for meetings and booking meeting locations. I am organized, driven, and efficient. My vision this year for HSSA is to improve the administrative framework so that we can get more done in less time. To accomplish this vision, I will work with the presidents to make a precise and thorough meeting agenda and ensure relevant and important items are addressed and recorded during the meetings. I will also work towards creating better communication between members from all our faculties and the executives so that we can organize events and workshops that will benefit everyone the most.

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The University of Alberta Health Sciences Students’ Association is a local chapter of the National Health Sciences Students’ Association (NaHSSA). The NaHSSA is a national collaborative student organization that is composed of 19 local chapters at numerous participating post-secondary institutions in Canada. The University of Alberta HSSA is comprised of the entire student body of all the health sciences faculties at the University of Alberta.